It is well known that oil is a critical commodity for modern societies. To meet this need, oil production is engaged in on a worldwide basis under a variety of conditions and using a variety of techniques. Petroleum reserves (e.g., extra heavy oil and bitumen) that were once passed over in favor of easier to extract reserves are now receiving considerably more attention than in the past, and in fact are the target of many extraction efforts in Canada and elsewhere. Indeed, the continued development of oil production techniques to increase the economic efficiency of oil production may be a constant goal of the oil production industry.
As is well known, crude oil and partially refined oil often may consist of two or more physical and/or chemical components or constituents. In many oil production applications, it may be desirable to process an oil so as to separate out such various physical and/or chemical constituents. Such separation may be desirable to recover oil components with separate uses that may have independent commercial value and/or to produce an oil at a well site that can be pumped for further processing elsewhere.
A key aspect of conventional oil production practices may be transporting oil by pumping it through pipelines. However, extra-heavy oils may not be able to be pumped in existing pipelines in their natural state due to their high densities and kinematic viscosities. Rather, these oils usually must be processed into pipeline-ready heavy oils. Pipeline-ready heavy oils may be defined as those having, at pipeline temperatures, densities above 19 degrees API and kinematic viscosities below 350 centistokes. Conventional techniques for processing extra-heavy oils into pipeline-ready heavy oils typically involve mixture with either natural gas condensate or lighter hydrocarbons to produce a blended oil that can be pumped. However, using the methods and apparatus of this disclosure, the need for a diluent to produce a blended oil may be eliminated and a directly pumpable oil may be produced instead.